Contrasting Realities
by Iemitsu-Sachi
Summary: When Sound Four attacked Team Seven in order to take Sasuke, Sakura performs a jutsu that they conveniently just learned and are transported to the future. Now Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura are stuck with their future selves, much to their dismay. SasuNaru
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, so don't sue.  
Warnings: Shounen-ai, yaoi, ooc-ness, minor spoilers, future mpreg, and more ooc-ness.

This starts off a little after the Chuunin Exams. So there might be a few spoilers, if you never seen it that far, but I doubt it.

"Talking"  
_Thinking_

* * *

"Are you sure about this Kakashi?" a man with a scar on the bridge of his nose asked. After giving some thought to the plan, he really wasn't so sure it will work.

A man in his mid-thirties smiled behind his mask. "Yes Iruka, I know that this will be an important decision for him and will most likely change everything, but I've been thinking… what if Sasuke knew what he was missing before-hand? What if he found out about everything he could have? If only he would have made a better choice," the older man mused.

His tentative lover gave a worried sigh but allowed him to pack his stuff in a small bag, only consisting of a few weapons and a thick scroll that he got especially from the Hokage. It wasn't easy getting that scroll. Iruka had to ask the Hokage directly and say that he needed it for research, which was a complete lie. The Hokage gave him a strange look, but complied anyway.

Kakashi set his small bag over his shoulder. "Alright then, I'll be going now. I'll perform the jutsu near the old meeting place. It's close to a forest and it'll help by giving me a quick escape."

Iruka hugged him. "Be careful alright? Don't stay there too long or the current Hokage will detect you, or worse you'll detect yourself."

Kakashi hugged the brunet back and after a quick kiss, the silver-haired man disappeared in a fluid motion.

--

Uchiha Sasuke should have seen from the very beginning that today wouldn't be like any other day, from the time he woke up to when he arrived to Team Seven's usual meeting place on the bridge. Unsurprisingly, he was the first one to arrive. Just like any other day, he leaned back against the rail of the bridge. He didn't need to wait very long. After a few minutes Sakura arrived, cheerfully greeting him.

"Good morning Sasuke-kun! How's everything? Did you have a good night's sleep?"

Sasuke only nodded at her without really looking at her direction.

She tried to engage him in a couple of amiable conversations, but they were mostly one-sided. Half an hour passed, and the stillness of the morning was stopped by Konoha's number one hyperactive ninja.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan!!"

Sakura groaned. Sure, she was more accepting towards the blonde's hyper attitude, but that didn't mean she liked getting temporary deaf by the boy's loud attitude. All she wanted was a few moments with the silent boy next to her. Next thing she knew, her eyes were nearly blinded by the sudden orange-ness.

"Naruto! Do you have to be so loud?!"

The whiskered boy pouted. "But Sakura-chan! I'm just happy to see you. You must have been bored to death with only _him_ being here," he pointed at the stoic brunet.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "Dobe."

"Don't call me that, bastard!"

"Hn. Usuratonkachi."

"Asshole!"

Sakura laughed nervously at the glaring boys.

Ever since the Chuunin exams were interrupted by Orochimaru, the two boys have been less friendly towards each other. The disruption ruined their chances of fighting together, and everyone knew how much they wanted to impress the other. But now, they constantly had childish verbal and physical fights. It obviously had something to do with who was the best but it also had something to do with favoritism. Naruto did not like the fact that Kakashi-sensei had trained Sasuke personally, while he was stuck with the Ero-Sennin. Sasuke on the other hand, could not stand the fact that Naruto was starting to catch up to him.

By now the silence was awkward and tense. Sakura just hoped that Kakashi-sensei wouldn't take too long today, but that was only wishful thinking.

To their complete surprise, their teacher appeared with a puff of smoke right on top of the bridge's rail.

"Good morning!" the copy nin ignored his students' shocked looks.

Nobody said a word. For the first time ever, their teacher was actually early!

Sasuke had to blink twice while Naruto rubbed his blue eyes with his fists to clear his sight.

_This guy must be an imposter. _

_What the hell? This can't be happening! The world is gonna end! _Naruto inwardly freaked out.

_Am I dreaming? I must be still sleeping or something._ Sakura pitched herself to see if she was dreaming, but quickly released that she was wide awake.

"Ano sa Kakashi, you're early. And you kinda look different; did you get a haircut or something?" the orange-clad boy gave him a suspicious look.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed, there was definitely something different about the masked man, but nothing seemed out of place. His appearance was a little off. The usual wild, messy, spiky, white hair was a little shorter and a little bit tamer than usual. His body figure was bulkier and looked heavier as well. His face, although it was still covered by his mask, looked more mature, not as goofy as it usually looks. But even after inspecting him with the Sharingan, he couldn't find any traces of him being an impostor.

Kakashi disregarded their suspiciousness with a wave of his hand.

"You guys are just saying that because you never seen me arrive early before." His visible eye closed in a happy arc. "I came early today because I want to show you a new jutsu."

Immediately, three pairs of eyes brightened at those words. It's been a while since they've been taught something new.

The masked nin took out a thick, long scroll from his weapon's pouch. "This jutsu that I'm about to teach you requires a great deal of chakra control. It is also only for emergencies. It transports you and your teammates to a… different place where is safe and away from danger."

The three overwhelmed students inwardly cheered. First Kakashi was early and now they would be learning a new technique, maybe that saying 'patience is a virtue' is plausibly true.

Naruto couldn't hold his excitement any longer. After suffering with those dull, lame D-rank missions, this time he could actually impress his pink-haired crush! He'll show her how much he has improved lately by learning this new jutsu faster than Sasuke!

Meanwhile, Sakura was giggling silently. She knew she had great chakra control, so this jutsu shouldn't really be difficult. Of course, she shouldn't count her chickens before they hatch.

Sasuke was secretly glad that they were learning more instead of doing useless D-rank missions. Those things only wasted his time. Perhaps this new technique might help him with his ambition to get strong enough to kill his older sibling.

Kakashi untied the scroll and without showing anything to the eager students, he read the instructions and showed them the seals.

The genin concentrated and mirrored their teacher. Kakashi watched them carefully to make sure nothing was amiss with their stance or chakra levels.

"Keep in mind that only one person is needed to perform the jutsu, but all of you need to learn it since you never know who's going to have their hands free. Also, you must remember to not speak about this jutsu and in return I expect you to also be trusted with it."

"Hell yeah!"

"We understand sensei."

"Hn."

The jounin smiled behind his mask. "Good, good." His face suddenly turned serious as he gazed at Naruto and Sasuke. "I hope this jutsu will help you choose a much better path." _Especially you, Sasuke._

He smiled at them again. "I'll come back and check on you in a few minutes," he said before swiftly disappearing with a poof of smoke.

--

_Alright let's see… first comes tiger, than the ox… or is it the… Aw man! Let's start over!_ Naruto gave an exasperated sigh. He could get it! He just needed time that's all.

After a total of seventeen minutes, Naruto managed to remember and perform all the hand seals in the correct order. But now he seemed to have trouble with summoning the right amounts of chakra.

Sasuke was having a hard time as well, but it wasn't like he was going to let the others know. He was usually great at learning new techniques thanks to his photographic memory. Even so, he couldn't help but feel irritated when the justu wouldn't work.

The raven-haired boy turned to look at the frustrated face of Naruto, only to glare at each other when deep blue eyes made eye contact with his own.

Sakura sweat dropped when she saw her teammates glaring at each other with looks-that-could-kill. She hopped that someday, the tension between those two would disappear.

_I mean seriously! They practically have contests on who has won the most contests! __Who cares if one is stronger than the other? All it matters is that they are all recognized and talented shinobi, ready to defend and fight for their village and people. _

Anyways, Sakura, by far, was doing better with the new jutsu. It was all thanks to her amazing chakra control, or it could also be that her teammates would rather burn holes at each other's heads with their eyes than to practice. The hand seals were kind of hard to memorize not to mention summoning the right amounts of chakra. But so far so good; with a little bit more practice, she might be able to fully perform this jutsu in about a week!

The students' training was interrupted when Kakashi reappeared.

"Good morning! Sorry I'm late. I was helping a dolphin get back home."

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, you look different again. Did you mess up you hair or something- Ow! Sakura-chan, that hurt!" he rubbed the sore spot on his head.

The pink-haired cracked her knuckles. "You're being annoying again."

Kakashi gave them a confused stare. "You're very lively today. Anyways, I'll train with Sakura while Naruto and Sasuke spar."

"Hey wait! What? We're not going to continue practicing the-"

"Let's go dobe."

"Jackass!"

--

The jounin regarded his out of breath students. "That's it for today. Go home and rest, tomorrow we have more D-rank missions."

Naruto frowned, and then grinned. "Ne, Kakashi-sensei, as soon as I get home, I'll start practicing… wait may be not as soon as I get home. After I shower and eat some ramen I can- Ow! Sasuke-teme! What was that for?!" The poor boy rubbed the sore spot on his head for the second time. He let out a soft whine; the bastard hit him right in the same spot that he was hit the first time. If this keeps going, the bruise on his head would become fatal, regardless of his fast healing.

Sasuke glowered. "It's supposed to be a secret, you dumbass."

"Oh!" Naruto chuckled nervously.

The blonde's nervous chuckles brought out a suspicious look from the masked jounin.

"What exactly are you boys talking about?" Kakashi narrowed his single visible eye.

"Geez Kakashi-sensei, don't tell us you forgot already? You have short memory or something! You should eat more ramen; it has plenty of vitamins like ginko which improves memo- Ow! Damn it! Stop hitting me bastard!"

"You idiot, it's called ginkgo! And ramen does not contain it. It mostly has sodium and starches," Sasuke glared at the infuriating boy.

Kakashi relaxed and looked at his students with a bored expression and said his good-byes before disappearing for the second time.

"Ne, Sakura-chan, can I walk you home?"

--

In the end, the three genins resulted in walking home together since their homes were on the same path, mostly. Of course, there were plenty of discussions from the three of them. Naruto wanted to walk with Sakura, but she preferred the company of a certain raven-haired, who really didn't care as long as he was left alone in his self-thoughts; it took nearly twenty-five minutes to reach a conclusion. They all would walk together to the first house which was Sakura's, and then from there, split up.

The streets were already darkening, and shadows took over the town. Shops and markets closed from the day, one by one. People headed to their homes in a hurry to finally spend the calm night with their families and friends.

Unknowingly to the three genin, four pair of eyes watched them from the top of the trees, more specifically, at the brunet with his hands on his pockets. The only female stared at the temporary leader.

"What do we do now? The Uchiha is with those annoying brats!" the female sneered. "Do we wait until he's alone or can we ambush them and beat the other two's faces on the dirt?"

"We'll wait," the leader answered, still watching the Sharingan user.

"Why don't we just drag him with us to Sound?" she suggested, which enunciated a growl from the leader.

"He's supposed to come to us willingly!" he barked, making the kunoichi shrink back and huff. "We'll wait," he said again, this time more quietly. "If the other two are still with him by nightfall, we'll attack."

The four nin dispersed, careful to keep Sasuke in sight.

--

Sasuke sneezed. He could not shake the feeling that someone was looking at him, but whenever he would turn to look back to see if he was been spied, all he would see were trees and the confused stares of a few people passing by or his teammates.

"Is something wrong Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked after noticing her friend's tense aura.

It was then that Sasuke felt a powerful presence following them.

_No… there are four of them._

He quickly caught Sakura's attention, and gave her a sign that Team Seven always used during missions to let each other know about potential attackers.

Sakura obviously got the hint. She was nervously looking at their surroundings, trying to find the stalkers while looking as inconspicuously as possible.

"And he was like, 'who are you?' and I was like 'I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm here to save the day!' and he was like 'No! Not the great Uzumaki Naruto, the Sixth Hokage!' and then I fought with the ugly dude and kicked his ass!"

Sasuke was glaring at the poor blonde to shut up. "Be quiet you idiot!"

"Bastard! Just because you don't want to hear about my dreams doesn't mean that Sakura-chan doesn't, even if they are weird, right Sakura-chan? Talking about weird, Kakashi-sensei was acting strange today and he kept giving us these looks during training. May be those D-rank missions finally screwed with his head."

Naruto was too busy babbling about how Kakashi-sensei bizarre attitude that he didn't notice his teammates' serious faces. At least not until shadows nimbly jumped from the trees above them and surrounded them.

Automatically, all three genin got into fighting positions without letting their assailants out of sight. The sun had already set; leaving the quiet village in darkness, their only source of light was the full moon that seemed to glow an enticing, ethereal blue light.

Their attention was caught above them in the trees. The larger shadow jumped down in front of them. Three more followed and encircled them.

_Tch, they been watching us for a while_, Sasuke thought.

Naruto growled. "Who are you and what the hell do you want?"

_That dobe, he's too rash. He's going to get himself killed one of these days with that attitude of his. _Sasuke mentally shook his head. He should be concentrating on nothing else except the strange shinobi. Why was he getting himself worried about the dobe anyway? He could take care of himself. He activated the Sharingan, ready to attack.

The team composed of foreign ninja stared at them silently. The shinobi standing in the middle, a tall guy with pale skin and blue-grey hair scoffed and stared at the Sharingan user. _Orochimaru-sama wants _this _guy as his next vessel? He looks like a scrawny, puny cat who probably doesn't even know how to control the precious seal that Orochimaru-sama gave him. It doesn't matter though, orders are orders._

"It doesn't matter who we are, and what we want has nothing to do with you bitches," the female of the group with long red hair, pointed at Sakura and Naruto.

"Tayuya, watch your language!"

"Damn it! Shut the hell up you fat ass! You just gave my name away!" the girl, now known as Tayuya, glared at the biggest male of the group. He in turn, stared at the ground in embarrassment.

"That's enough!" the leader with the blue-gray hair shouted at his teammates. "Sasuke, leave this weaklings and come with us to Sound. Konoha is doing nothing but holding you back and impeding your revenge."

Sakura gasped as she realized what the guy just said. _They came to take him away!_

Sasuke seemed shocked that these foreign ninja knew his name, and even worse know about his goal of searching for power.

After a few seconds, Naruto finally pieced together the puzzle. He grabbed a kunai from his pouch. "You're his servants aren't you? You work for that Orochimaru guy, the one that killed the Third Hokage! What do you want with Sasuke?!"

Tayuya sneered. "Like we're going to tell our plans to Konoha trash like you!"

That did it. Naruto sprung forward quickly making the seals for the shadow clone jutsu. Sasuke jumped and threw a few kunai at the pale blue-haired boy, who moved out of the way, completely unharmed.

Sakura stood paralyzed, her teammates fighting two against four.

_Are these guys here to convince Sasuke to join them? Do they have a curse seal that makes them more powerful? _Her eyes widened._ Should I tell Naruto about Sasuke's seal_?

Sasuke had asked her to not tell Naruto, but no matter how strong Sasuke and Naruto are, they could never take four ninja with curse seals. She had to do something, anything. If she doesn't do something, she and her teammates would die.

"Naruto! Behind you!" Sasuke warned while dodging a boulder that was thrown by the large ninja that scolded the girl. Who knew such a big guy would worry about obscene language when he's strong enough to practically throw a mountain.

_Alright, calm yourself down and see through their jutsu. The big guy only specializes with earth jutsu while the other guy with the six arms spits spider webs. I'll have to get past their defenses if I want to hit them with a Chidori._

"Bastard! I can take care of myself, you know?!"

The leader smirked, "Oh, really? You haven't even laid a scratch on me. Tayuya was right; you are nothing but Konoha trash."

Naruto growled, his eyes turning red for a second. "Oh yeah? Well at least we don't wear bows on our asses, and what the hell is that on your lips? Are you wearing lipstick?" he taunted.

The boy with the pale blue hair twitched and made a few hand seals.

"Sakon! Don't let them get to you, you're using the seal!" Tayuya shouted from her place as she watched the seal spread across her teammate's face. She will let Sakon deal with the blond kid. She'll take care of the ugly pink-haired girl behind her.

"What the hell are you doing standing around there? Aren't you going to help your little bitches?" she mocked. _This one is gonna be easy!_

Sakura glared and retrieved a few shuriken from her pouch. She was now starting to get pissed.

"Don't ever call them that again or you'll regret it!" she threatened. So may be she wasn't as skilled as Sasuke-kun or didn't have huge amounts of stamina like Naruto, but no one insults her teammates and got away with it.

"Shut up! I'm not going to let you live long enough for you to follow up with that threat!" the Sound kunoichi shouted at Sakura.

Before making another move, she went back to thinking without taking her eyes from the other kunoichi.

_Why hasn't anyone come to help us yet? Surely, someone might have noticed or heard the commotion by now._

Tayuya smirked. "No one will come to your aid, we made sure of that," she said, almost reading her thoughts. She took out a beautiful silver colored flute from her pouch.

_I have to do something to give us more time!_

Back in the Academy, their teacher, Iruka, told them a lot about what to do incase of an ambush, but she could hardly remember anything! One thing she did remember though was that the have two choices: they can spread out, run away and hope one of them survives to call for help, or they could stay and try to defeat them. She wished Kakashi-sensei was here. Wait... speaking of Kakashi-sensei, he just recently taught them a teleportation jutsu this morning! This could actually work and save their lives!

_But he said it was for emergencies only. I don't think I can even make it work!_

"Naruto! Get up you dunce!" she heard Sasuke shout somewhere to her left narrowly missing another attack.

Naruto coughed some blood. "I know dammit! I'm not going to let you have all the fun." He staggered to stand up ignoring the pain rushing through his body like deadly poison.

The leader, known by Tayuya as Sakon, chuckled. "You look like a simple breeze can knock you out, but I'll do more than that… No Ukon, you don't need to join in, he'll be dead soon…"

Naruto managed to laugh despite the blood dribbling down his chin. "Who's Ukon? Is that your imaginary friend?"

Sakon hissed. "Shut up! Prepare to die, _Tarenken_!"

Before Naruto could react, he was punched repeatedly in the stomach and chest. The sheer force threw him straight to the wall, which crumpled with the impact in a cloud of dust.

"Naruto!"

Tayuya smirked. "It looks like he's not so tough now." She turned back to a paralyzed Sakura, "you're definitely next. Chains of Fantasia!**"**

The soft tune of the flute began to play and quickly shattered the peaceful tranquility of the night. Sakura could see everything in slow motion. Everything was just too surreal. She saw Sasuke running to an unconscious Naruto and picking him up, while deflecting and dodging the attack of the six-armed guy.

She felt her body numbing thanks to the melody ringing in her ears, and the rapid pounding of her heart increased. She closed her eyes in frustration.

_We're going to die! And Sasuke will be forced to join Orochimaru and do who knows what to him!_

There's no way she would let that happen. This was an emergency! She forced herself to come back from the swirling state that the tune of the song placed her in. And just before her entire body went numb, she made the seals that Kakashi-sensei made them learn just a few hours prior.

The last thing she saw before succumbing to the jutsu was Sasuke struggling to avoid the attacks while maneuvering Naruto's weight on his arms and Tayuya's surprised gaze at the blinding white light that surrounded all seven of them.

* * *

There! Sakura is not as useless as she seems. Sometimes people make her a bitch, but she can be quite useful every once in a while, like she can be a yaoi matchmaker!

Sorry if the chapter sounded rushed, there will be more SasuNaru hints next chapter; actually there will be a lot. Please be patient, read the warnings, and review!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, so don't sue.  
Warnings: Shounen-ai, yaoi, ooc-ness, minor spoilers, implied mpreg, and more ooc-ness.

This starts off a little after the Chuunin Exams. So there might be a few spoilers, if you never seen it that far, but I doubt it.

"Talking"  
_Thinking_

* * *

It was a strange, bizarre feeling. It was the type of feeling that stayed with you and refused to fade away. And no matter how many times you tried to shake it off, it came back twice as persistent.

It was the same type of emotion you got when you wrote a long paper, have it torn up by your stupid secretary because according to her it sucks, and she exhorts you to write it all over again (of course that doesn't happen to most of us). It also felt like a combination of nostalgia and déjà vu. An occurrence which you realized that it has already happened, but don't even know what was that special thing is. This odd feeling was quite off, and to the current Hokage, it felt slightly suspicious.

Shrugging, the leader of the village went back to the stack of papers on the desk, inwardly happy that there was only an hour left until lunch. All thoughts of suspicion were gone for the moment.

--

Immediately after waking up, Sasuke alertly looked for the attackers from the day before. Eyes frantically searched for the renegade ninja from Sound with the Sharingan. Surprisingly, the trees were still and calm, the birds chirped obliviously happy, and the sun shined like there was no tomorrow. Not finding anyone with weird clothes or the Sound headband in the vicinity, Sasuke relaxed before searching for his teammates.

He stood up shakily and went over to check on Sakura, who was closest to him. The pink-haired kunoichi was lying on her back a few feet away, facing towards him. The Uchiha checked her pulse. Her breathing was fine and she didn't appear to be hurt. Also, her hair was a little messed up and her clothes were ruffled and a little tattered, but other than that she appeared to be fine.

Moving over to Naruto, the Uchiha took a little longer to check for any injuries. It's not that he didn't care about Sakura; it was just that he could clearly remember the blond idiot getting hurt and passing out… in Sasuke's arms.

Sasuke kneeled close to inspect the other boy further. Using both his eyes and his hands to check for any wounds, he found to his completely bewilderment absolutely no injuries on his teammate. His hair was stained with dried blood, but after taking a closer look, he found no cuts.

_Maybe it's not his blood._ He thought and continued with the check up. Even after he patted Naruto's chest, he couldn't find any broken or bruised ribs, where he was sure he was hit painfully.

_I guess he is alright then…_

Eyes wide, Sasuke realized that he had been feeling up his teammate while he was unconscious.

Feeling his face heat up a few degrees in shame and something else he could not put a name on, Sasuke retreated his hand as if it was on fire and backed as far away as possible.

Mortified and slightly disturbed, Sasuke tried to come up with a reason for almost risking his life for the orange-clad boy for the fourth- or was it fifth?- time since they've become teammates.

The Uchiha had rescued the other boy far more times than he could remember, and no matter how many times Sasuke told himself to stop and let the dobe take care of himself, the brunet always risked his life and chance to avenge his clan for coming at his rescue. Perhaps he acted out of pure instinct, or maybe he only helped to test his own abilities. But perhaps, he did it for something else? Because in the end, the pain and trouble was all worth it.

The blue-eyed boy never thanked him afterwards; instead, he always ended up expressing how much he abominated getting rescued by the black-haired boy. But Sasuke knew. He knew that Naruto was always remorseful for being so hateful towards Sasuke.

There was an occasion that Sasuke was sent to the hospital for three weeks for taking a deathly blow for Naruto during a very rare B-rank mission. Naruto had avoided him and never visited while Sasuke was still hospitalized, but everyday a nurse would bring a small bento to a puzzled Sasuke.

The first time it happened, Sasuke had asked who it was from. The nurse giggled and told him a young, blue-eyed blonde brought it and asked the receptionist to send it to him. Sasuke only narrowed his eyes and told the nurse he didn't want anything from fan girls. Of course the nurse just took one look at his red-tinted eyes and alarmly told him that the young boy who sent the bento wanted him to have it anyways.

At this, Sasuke had widened his eyes. Blondes were uncommon in Konoha but blue-eyed blond boys; well, there were just a small handful of them. But Sasuke only knew one. He only knew one annoying, hyperactive, orange-clad, blue-eyed, blond boy.

Uncertain, Sasuke accepted the box and coldly told the nurse to leave to reflect on his self thoughts in private. It was for him and for him alone. The intimidated nurse frantically ran out of the room in record speed without sparing a glance.

Opening the bento, Sasuke was pleasantly surprised to find colorful, sweet smelling food packed nicely in the small box with a small note taped on the side.

The content of the note left the black-haired boy feeling more light-hearted than he had felt in days.

A messy 'thanks –N.U.' was scribbled on the note, which looked like it was hurriedly ripped from a small notebook.

Sasuke had then taken his time to savor the food so carefully prepared by none other than the-number-one-ninja-at-surprising-people.

He shouldn't have expected too much from the dobe. The onigiri balls were crookedly-shaped and the salted salmon filling was too salty. The fried shrimp was heavy with oil and a little burned. The only thing Naruto managed to do right was to put cherry tomatoes in the bento, which were his favorite.

Nevertheless, the Uchiha had eaten everything in the lunch box, thinking how hard Naruto must have worked knowing that he could only cook ramen.

--

The raven-haired was so busy reminiscing and waiting for his teammate to wake up that he had forgotten about Orochimaru's henchmen and his sleeping teammates.

"Sasuke-kun?"

Sasuke was shaken off of his stupor by a waking Sakura who was giving him a tired but overjoyed look of relief.

"I'm so glad you're still here! I thought for sure those strange shonobi had taken you," the young girl said, relief was quickly replaced by dread in her light green eyes as she looked around.

"Where are they anyway? Has Naruto woken up yet?" She asked.

As on cue, Naruto slowly blinked his eyes open. He groaned and closed his eyes again.

Sasuke rushed over to help him sit up. Naruto winced at the pain in his chest, but said nothing as both Sasuke and Sakura helped him stand up by holding an arm each.

"Where are we?" Naruto finally asked. "It doesn't look the place we were last night, I don't even remember getting here!" The whiskered boy waved his arms wildly.

Paying extra attention to his surroundings, Sasuke became aware of the tall trees, dark soil with splotches of grass, and grey boulders used as target practice during training. He finally chose to respond.

"Looks like we're in the forests at the outskirts of Konoha."

"How did we get here?" Naruto asked his teammates who were deep in thought.

Sakura, being the most capable and less distracted since she wasn't in any pain, searched deeply in her mind for anything that could help her remember what had happened the day before. She couldn't come up with anything though. She could only remember the fight between them and the Shinobi from Sound. Her mind then drifted to Naruto losing consciousness and the girl opponent played that flute, and her body growing numb and heavy.

"The last thing I remember was helping Naruto against the six-armed guy and then a flash of light consumed us completely," Sasuke explained, very clearly recalling the horrible, rotten feeling he got when he saw Naruto almost getting killed. He chose to leave that out though.

Naruto stared at Sasuke in disbelief. _Oh shit, he did it again, didn't he?_

Feeling that he was being stared at, Sasuke roamed his midnight-black eyes until clashing with grim blue eyes filled with melancholy and apprehension. Naruto glared hatefully at Sasuke and turned his head away with a 'humph'.

"I didn't need your help; I can take care of myself just fine!"

Sasuke glared back. "You didn't seem to be doing a good job then, moron."

Fuming, Naruto closed his fists tightly, knuckles turning a pallid color. "You just want to appear like your better than everyone else! You're nothing but a conceited bastard!"

Before Sasuke could say anything, Sakura scowled. Her pale green eyes turning a dark jade color. "How can you be so ungrateful? Sasuke-kun saved you, Naruto!"

Naruto flinched at her tone, down casting his glare so no one would see the irritation in his eyes.

Sakura sighed and walked ahead. "The white flash of light that surrounded us yesterday probably came from…" she trailed off. _That's right! Kakashi-sensei's jutsu! And this jutsu was supposed to take us away from the scene of battle to a 'safer place!'_

"Just like Kakashi said!" she cheered out loud, throwing a fist in the air.

Both Sasuke and Naruto turned to stare at her. "Are you okay Sakura-chan?" Naruto gave her a worried stare, rushing over to her side.

Sasuke watched Naruto fret over the kunoichi only to be smacked on the head when he apparently got too close to the girl. Before he knew it, the Uchiha was painfully clenching his teeth with surpassed emotions.

_He just recovered from the attacks of those dangerous ninjas and she's already beating the crap out of him!_

The raven-haired shook his head. It was not of his business what his teammates did to each other.

"You guys! I know where the white flash came from!" Sakura said excitedly.

Both Naruto and Sasuke turned to stare at her with confused faces, or at least Naruto looked confused, Sasuke was impassive as ever.

"It was Kakashi-sensei's new jutsu. You guys remember don't you?! It was supposed to take you and your teammates to a safer place in case of an emergency!"

Naruto's eyes began to sparkle in delight. "Sakura-chan, you're so cool! You saved us from those butt-bow wearing morons."

Despite that the compliment had come from Naruto and not Sasuke, Sakura blushed and smiled broadly at him, making Naruto feel dazed and giddy. At this, Sasuke adverted his eyes from the scene, struggling for a moment to control his anger again.

Finally coming off of his Sakura- adoring-state, Naruto turned his head towards the small clearing they were on, his eyes a light with curiosity.

"What do we do now?"

"I think we should look around to see if those ninja from yesterday are still around here," Sakura suggested, meeting Sasuke's face to see if he approved.

To her slight disappointed his face gave nothing away, his dark eyes were still fixed on Naruto or more specially, his hair.

The sun's buttery haze shone brightly on Naruto's messy hair, giving him beautiful, pale, golden-colored highlights almost making it seem like he was an angel with a glowing halo crowing his head. Even the dried blood on him couldn't spoil the wonderful image. Sasuke stared without breathing, missing the worried question from Sakura.

"Hey, Sasuke-teme! She asked you if you're okay! Don't just ignore her. And why are you staring at me like that?"

Sasuke arrogantly stared to the side. "I'm fine," he said, more angry than horrified at being caught staring. "We should probably go to see the Hokage about the Sound ninja."

Sakura's eyes brightened. "Your idea is better Sasuke-kun."

Naruto earlier good mood deflated. No matter what he did, no matter what he said, the adoration in those green eyes would never be directed at him. And although Naruto wanted nothing more than for her to be happy, he couldn't understand why there was a small bubble of jealousy when Sasuke nodded at her direction and smirked, probably glad there weren't any objections to his plan.

Reluctantly, Naruto agreed as well.

--

Konoha's busy streets would've usually created a sense of safety and relief to be back home. But for the young genins, confusion and disorientation were more accurate.

Gawking, they could barely find anything familiar. There were shops and markets, apartment buildings, and unfamiliar inns that were not there last night. And whenever they managed to spot a familiar building, store or restaurant, it was still different than what they remembered since they seemed renovated or redecorated.

"Hey, are we in a different village?" Naruto asked jokingly. He nervously scratched a whiskered cheek.

Sakura smiled tentatively. "That's ridiculous Naruto, of course we are in the right village, right Sasuke-kun?"

The mysterious streets and surroundings appalled Sasuke more than it showed. Of course, he did not allow any sort of surprise or awe show in his facial features. Discreetly, he activated the Sharingan.

_This is no genjutsu_, he thought. Though nothing was recognizable, they were still in Konoha.

"Shit!" Naruto suddenly yelled. A few people stopped to scowl at him for his rude behavior, though they were completely ignored by Naruto as he instead walked over to Sasuke, who was still using the Sharingan. He casually laid a hand on his shoulder and pivoted him to turn around.

There seemed to be some commotion at the Hokage's mountain. It seemed like a new face was being carved next to the Godaime's, judging by the many artists and workers there. The face was unrecognizable, but it was completely obvious it was a man due to the soft, albeit masculine jaw and chin.

"How can this happen? Tsunade-sama was still Hokage, wasn't she?" Sakura wondered.

"One more reason we must speak to the Hokage, whoever it is," Sasuke said.

"Can we get something to eat first?" Naruto's stomach grumbled.

"Naruto! Right now is not the time for food, we have to talk to Lady Tsunade," Sakura said impatiently, but before Naruto could retort back, the girl's stomach grumbled loudly.

Naruto and Sasuke both stared at her with expressions that said 'like your one to talk', making the girl grin sheepishly and blush.

"Well, I suppose we can eat first. None of us had eaten since yesterday." Sasuke grunted when Naruto peeked sideways at him with a hopeful expression.

"How about some ramen?" Naruto bounced on his feet, acting completely like a child who expected to be rewarded with candy.

Sasuke's lips twitched into a small, crooked smile. He quickly sobered up before anyone could see it though.

Sakura frowned. _Ramen again_? She thought miserably. But before she could open her mouth and abruptly tell him that they would not be eating ramen again, Sasuke shrugged and muttered a soft 'whatever.'

Naruto leaped into the air with a loud whoop and raced towards what it seemed like Ichikaru's ramen stand.

_If it's still there,_ Sasuke thought.

--

To the trio's astonishment, Ichikaru's was still there. Wonderful smells of pork, beef, soy sauce, crushed garlic and chicken stock filled their noses making it seem like they haven't eaten in a millennia.

Seating on the stools, they quickly noticed that the stand was decorated differently. The size of the restaurant had expanded to accommodate tables near the counter, no longer making it a food stand but more like a restaurant. There were even posters of all four walls decorated with different types of new ramen along with the menu. And there were more employees working to attend the customers and clean the tables, floors and counters.

A brunette in her late twenties approached them behind the counter. She smiled softly at the team and welcomed them into her restaurant.

"What would you like to order?" She smiled at them. Though there was a hint of bewilderment in her eyes as she looked at them.

Naruto wasted no time. "I would like a bowl of miso ramen please! And then maybe be a barbeque-pork ramen, then I'll take another miso ramen!" The orange-clad boy carried on, not noticing that the woman's strange look was becoming more and more confused and suspicious.

Sakura smacked him on the back of his head. "And how exactly are you going to pay for all that?" _Shannaro! I am SO NOT PAYING for your countless bowls!_

Naruto made a face and reached in his pocket for his wallet. "I have money from the last mission, I think."

"You need more than a few bucks to pay your never-ending appetite!"

"I'll pay for half of his food," Sasuke volunteered, willing to do anything to stop the bickering between his two teammates.

"You will? Thanks Sasuke, you're not so bad after all!" Naruto smiled gleefully reaching over to lightly punch him on the shoulder.

Sasuke ignored him. "Hn."

Sakura though, was deep in thought. _Did I miss something?_ There was something new with her friends' attitude towards each other, they seemed friendlier, or at least Sasuke-kun did. Naruto was always friendly unless they got in a verbal fight; only after Sasuke smirked teasingly would Naruto burst with bright, playful smiles and everything would go back to normal. It almost seemed like they were unconsciously flirting with each other. The thought of that made her cringe.

While waiting for their orders, the empty restaurant's silence was broken when footsteps approached the counter.

It was still early in the day, or at least too early for ramen. But the person that just arrived came closer, stopping in front of the counter and next to the genins.

The man was a shinobi, an ANBU actually, judging by his uniform and cat-like mask. However, it was rare for an ANBU to be around town in full uniform when not in a mission.

The woman in charge of the orders placed the food in front of the genins. Naruto grinned widely.

"Itadakimasu!" He dug in; his chopsticks picked up the long noodles and slurped them noisily.

The ANBU snapped his head towards them at the sound of the blonde's voice and exclamation, tensing immediately at the sight of Naruto and the two others sitting next to him, embarrassed of the noises their friend was making.

The woman smiled at the ANBU.

"Are you having the usual order today?" She asked.

The ANBU just nodded at her direction.

In just a matter of minutes the woman had packed his order in to-go-containers then placed them in a plastic bag, ready for him.

The ANBU pay no heed to the already packed order in front of him and instead watched behind his white and black mask at three kids.

Sasuke felt a piercing stare coming from his left. From the corner of his eye, he saw the ANBU watching them even though his order was already packed and ready to go, but he still hasn't left. Neither Sakura nor Naruto paid much attention, after all, ANBU shinobi needed to eat too right?

Looking down to his half-eaten ramen, Sasuke continued to eat and ignore the hard stare coming from the older shinobi.

_He's probably staring at Naruto and his ill manners._

Already full with just one bowl (Sakura coming second with two bowls and Naruto with seven), Sasuke paid for both his meal and half of Naruto's, all three felt satisfied and ready to report to Tsunade.

They left the restaurant more energetically; with the ANBU following them with the ramen take-outs on one hand.

The man was obviously trying to pretend that he wasn't following; his pace was regulated and stopped every once in a while next to food stands or similar stores, but never did he stop watching Team Seven.

Making sure his voice was low, Sasuke whispered, "We are being followed."

Sakura nodded quietly in agreement.

Naruto snorted. "I say we should turn around and confront him and beat the shit- Ow!"

Sakura smacked his head again. "You idiot! We can't take on an ANBU!"

"Let's try to split up, whoever is still being followed should distract the person, while the other two speak with the Hokage," Sasuke said, his low voice marred with just a bit of hesitation.

Sakura agreed. "I'm okay with that."

"Why do we always have to run away from our opponents?" Naruto whined, which earned him a glare from Sakura.

"Look what happened to us last night with those Sound Ninja! You need to learn from your mistakes."

Naruto looked over his shoulder to peak at the ANBU.

"But I don't think he's trying to harm us, he would've done it already-"

Sakura interrupted. "That's because we're in public."

"And," Naruto continued, ignoring the pissed-off girl, "What's the big deal of him following us? He could just be making sure we go home safely. Isn't it an ANBU's job to protect the citizens of Konoha?"

Sasuke smirked, his eyebrow raised in mock awe. "Well, dobe. That was very insightful of you, but if he was trying to protect us, why is he running straight at us at top speed?"

Turning around, while still walking, Naruto's blue eyes widened. Sure enough, the ANBU was sprinting from building to building, heading towards them.

"Run, now!" Sasuke instructed, and the three of them indifferent directions.

Sakura headed east towards the Academy, while Sasuke headed west towards the Uchiha compound. Only Naruto stood immobilized by the sudden command. But after a few more seconds, he finally gained enough strength to sprint away north, towards the Hokage's building. Naruto looked over his shoulder again, he noticed the ANBU coming right after him.

"Crap!" he began to run faster.

_Maybe I can use the Shadow Clone jutsu to gain some time. No wait- that trick wouldn't do too much against an ANBU. But I have no choice. I have to get away._

While still running, he made the hand seals he knew by heart.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Ten more Naruto's appeared all taking different directions while the real Naruto continued north.

All the scrambling, jumping, running Narutos seemed to have an effect on the ANBU, for he paused for a second, probably at the sight of so much orange at a time.

Running for a good two minutes before hiding in an alley, he stopped to gain his breath back and look for signs of the masked ANBU. Finding none, he allowed himself to finally relax and slump against the cold, damp walls.

_I guess I lost him! _

Before he could celebrate his triumph, strong arms suddenly grabbed him by the waist and pulled him closer to the shadows of the alley. Hardly any people saw the struggle of the two shinobi, and if someone did in fact notice, probably just thought it was training related or the young boy was causing a deep nuisance in the village.

Naruto chocked down a yelp. "Let go of me you asshole! Let go!" the blond genin attempted to hit him with a fist but was swiftly caught by the ANBU's hand. Nothing he did was sufficient to scamper away from him.

"Let me go, or I'll fucking beat your-"

The arms around him tightened. "Shut up already, Usuratonkachi."

Naruto stopped struggling. He recognized that word. Sasuke was the one who gave him that name, but only Sasuke called him like that. No one dared to imitate him and call Naruto that to his face. For anyone who would dare, would most likely end up at Tsunade's office at the clinic. Sasuke was the only one who could get away with it… alive.

"What did you just call me?" Naruto watched the masked ninja through narrowed eyes.

"It's me, dobe."

_There it is again with the Sasuke-nicknames! Who is this guy?!_

Before he could say more, Sasuke and Sakura jumped behind the ANBU.

"Let go of him." Sasuke calmly pressed a kunai against his back.

Taken by surprise, the older shinobi reluctantly did as he was told and stepped away from Naruto.

Sasuke drove the masked ANBU deeper into the alley, letting the rest of his team the chance to escape.

"You guys go ahead; I'll take care of him." Sasuke said.

Naruto and Sakura hesitated. Sasuke, impatiently, turned his head away from the taller ninja to glare and repeat himself, but that proved to be a mistake as the adult seized Sasuke by his arm and pinned it behind his back.

Growling, Naruto lunched himself at the taller man and threw a punch at his head, which was effortlessly avoided, but was enough to disorient the ANBU for a couple of seconds, and for Sasuke to escape his grasp.

Activating the Sharingan, Sasuke could see Naruto's swirling chakra as he kept trying to land a blow to the guy's head.

The ANBU was obviously quicker and more agile; he avoided and dodged all of the attacks.

It was then that Sakura noticed the new, strange behavior of the older nin.

_The ANBU is attacking Sasuke-kun, but he's avoiding Naruto. Why is that though?_ She wondered, squinting as she tried to look better in the darkness of the ally.

Indeed, every time Naruto tried to launch himself at the ANBU, the man would swiftly get out of his way and pretend he wasn't even there,which is only aggravating Naruto even more.

Finding an opening, the Kyuubi container charged with a kunai in his hand. But to the dismay of all three, the ANBU easily caught his wrist, stopping him in mid-attack.

That wasn't what shocked the most though, the shinobi pulled Naruto closer to himself. His right arm wrapped around the boy's waist enveloping the smaller male into a soft embrace while the ANBU's other gloved hand touched lightly the blond hair.

Freezing, Naruto dropped the kunai and became immobilized.

_Wha- what is he doing?!_

"That is enough, Naruto. I will not fight anymore." The low attractive voice hummed next to his ear, the small warm puffs of air tickling him and making him shiver.

Sakura threw a puzzled stare at Sasuke before turning to look at the embracing couple.

Too shocked to do anything, Naruto waited until the other man slowly pulled away.

After a few minutes of silence, Sakura was the first one to find her voice.

"Who are you, and why did you follow and chase us?"

"I didn't intend to chase you or attack you; I was just surprised to see you here… As for who I am, I'll tell you, but you'll probably be shocked to know." His low rich voice sounded like he was trying to suppress laughter as he stared at the children through his mask.

The three young genin stayed quiet waiting impatiently for the man's answer, while he of course stared right back with indifference.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke," he said with a now serious tone. Before the three could protest or object, the ANBU pulled off his mask and dropped his hood.

Staring straight at them was a duplicate of Sasuke, except much older, all traces of baby fat gone. His pitch-black eyes were cold and hard, although they sort of softened when he would glance at the blonde. His jaw was well formed and mature, and his face was filled with knowledge and experience. The icy aura around him told them it was obvious he has been in the harsh profession of killing and murdering for a long time. Now full grown, he resembled his brother more than he did years prior. His raven hair was longer as well, not as long as Itachi's but probably down to his shoulders and spikier. He was also probably two or three heads taller than the younger Sasuke.

Sakura gulped.

Naruto stared with wide eyes, his mouth hanging half-open.

And Sasuke, the younger Sasuke, glared furiously at the other hoping to find a genjutsu with his Sharingan.

_This can't be… this is not possible!_

As if reading the younger Uchiha's mind, the ANBU stared right into the boy's eyes and activated his own already completed Sharingan, smirking coldly while doing so.

* * *

It's been a while since we updated, and to be honest we didn't think we would continue this fic. However, we decided that we were going to do this, whether this fic is popular or not.

We would like thanks our readers and of course, those of you who reviewed for all of our stories and for being so patient with us.

Please review, we really appreciate it!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, so don't sue.  
Warnings: Shounen-ai, yaoi, ooc-ness, minor spoilers, implied mpreg, and more ooc-ness.

This starts off a little after the Chuunin Exams. So there might be a few spoilers, if you never seen it that far, but I doubt it.

"Talking"  
_Thinking_

**I would like to apologize in advance for screwing with Kishimoto-sensei's plot. **You'll see what I mean later.

* * *

Sasuke narrowed his eyes at their escort. It was a trick; it had to be some sort of trick or hallucination. It suddenly struck to the young Sharingan-user that for all he knew, they were still in Konoha. In the Konoha that they _recognized_, where the streets were not lined up with unrecognizable stores and restaurants, with buildings that he knew they weren't there before, and with people that looked as familiar as the people from the Earth Country.

Perhaps he and his teammates were still locked in the genjutsu placed by the flute-user. Perhaps, Naruto and Sakura were unconscious or dead, their bodies dumped ruthlessly somewhere in an alley, or even completely disposed off all together. While Sasuke himself, was tied and held captive by the Sound Shinobi, dragging him to who knows where. The strange thoughts that penetrated his mind certainly made more damn sense than what was currently going on or what he was currently seeing.

The young Uchiha coldly kept his dark gaze on the supposed ANBU's cloaked back. If this _was_ a dream- his dream to be more precise- then why did the sad fact that he wasn't strong enough keep haunting him? If this was his dream, which he rarely got, did that mean that he was subconsciously telling himself that he would eventually grow as strong as this older replica?

Dream or not, this copy was stronger than Sasuke. Hell, he wasn't just stronger, he was ridiculously powerful. And what was worse, the Shinobi in the ANBU's uniform had Sharingan that could rival or even surpass Itachi's. His red-hued stare could probably freeze even the most hard-edged man, claiming that nothing on this world could make them flinch. Even so, this older Sasuke's Sharingan could even make his father, Fugaku, stop in his usual "Become an excellent Shinobi like you're brother" and gape at the strength of this man.

And the younger Sasuke had unfortunately found out about his horrifying strength the hard way.

"Still," the ANBU said nonchalantly, interrupting Sasuke's helpless thoughts. "I don't look too much like my brother, do I?"

Sasuke growled, visibly shaking in boiling rage. After the older man had shown his complete Sharingan, Sasuke's mind shut down in a heartbeat. This man looked exactly like _him_. The slightly longer hair was a little spiked, but that was hardly noticeable in the darkness of the alley. And the cold smile he had given the kids didn't help any. The similar resemblance was obvious despite the few differences. Sasuke knew that if he just let his hair grow a bit more, the ANBU would become his brother's shadow.

"Too much, actually," Sasuke whispered heatedly, drawing a worried stare from Sakura and a callous grunt from the escort.

Naruto snickered. Undoubtedly, the blond boy was enjoying the confusing and awkward situation.

_Being an idiot probably comes in handy every once in a while, _Sasuke thought, wincing when his teammate got into that 'talking-your-ear-off' attitude whenever he was excited to the point of erupting.

"What happened to the phrase '_two is better than one_'? Aren't you excited Sasuke-teme? Now you have someone that can talk and hold a conversation with you!" Naruto patted the smaller Uchiha's shoulder animatedly, though the latter looked like he was about to forget they were in public and cut off the offending limb. "Although, I wouldn't really call it a conversation, you both will probably talk with _hn_'s, glares, and grunts, while we all wonder what you two are gossiping about."

Despite the pain in his shoulder from when the ANBU had twisted it behind his back during the previous fight, Sasuke couldn't help but feel light-headed from the pats on his shoulder for some reason, and be amused at the same time.

One of the reasons Sasuke admired the determined orange-lover was because of his amazing ability to absorb whatever negative circumstance or dim moment that hit him. And like radiating sunshine, transformed them into brightly colored memories that just deserved to be stored in his bank of cherished memoirs that was close to nonexistent.

Back to wearing the mask for the obvious reason of covering his identity, the genin couldn't see the man's face, but they were still sure he was amused. The murderous aura was gone, replaced by a comfortable and easy atmosphere, which surrounded the strange group.

The four nin walked, this time more leisurely, through the busy streets. The ANBU proceeded with escorting the three to the Hokage Tower, occasionally nodding at the villagers who greeted him.

Really now, did the villagers forget that it was forbidden to address an ANBU directly? Or did this genjutsu-made village have different rules?

"Ne, Sasuke-teme." Sasuke turned his head to the left where the loud boy was walking, though turned away quickly when he realized Naruto wasn't referring to him. The youngest Uchiha shook his head slowly, he felt like he was coming down with something.

"What is it?" the ANBU responded, not bothering to come to a stop.

"What happened to the ramen you had a few minutes ago?" The taller shinobi was no longer carrying the take-outs he had before the chasing began, and Sasuke, in the mist of glaring, never noticed something so obvious.

"I let someone in charge of bringing it to the Hokage Tower."

Sasuke tuned out the rest of the one-sided conversation the blond was having with his older copy in favor of observing his surroundings. They kept passing by new shops and markets, along with entirely new people who happily minded their own business, except with the few stares the genin and escort were getting. A few villagers regarded the ANBU with mixed emotions, and Sasuke could oddly see that some _paled_ and even turned away at the sight of the masked nin.

While others smiled in acknowledgement and moved along the loud streets.

It was almost as if they _knew_ who was behind the cat-like mask. Either that or the villagers had gained a terrifying alarm for any ANBU.

"How long have you been an ANBU? Are you the captain?"

A few seconds passed. Sasuke then, began to think that the ANBU was clearly ignoring him. At least before the masked nin shrugged and grunted, almost two minutes after the questions were asked.

"Ne, Sasuke! Do you know a lot of cool new jutsu?"

Sasuke bit his tongue to keep from snapping at the cheerful Naruto next to him. What the hell was his problem? Acting like a puppy following his master, it was making him have a headache. Not to mention, an incredibly hot sensation was eating at his chest. It felt like he had violent flow of lava inside of him, burning and making his organs feel like they were melting together into a disgusting broth.

Perhaps he was getting sick after all.

With everything going on, the team somehow forgot about the only female accompanying them. The pink-haired hardly knew if she should open her lips, which seem to be dried and stuck together, or stay quiet just like she was now. As she moved in stiff movements behind the guys, her gaze on the ground, she had found out she had gone temporarily deaf.

The noises from the happy vendors and customers were blocked. The kunoichi couldn't hear the children play around them, nor could she hear the chirping of the birds enjoying the nice day. All the pink-haired girl could see was Naruto's lips move incessantly and people pass by. She was starting to feel like she was in those cheesy silent movies. And while the girl stared at the handsome young shinobi's back walking ahead of them like a protecting guide, Sakura couldn't help but wish this _was_ a cheesy silent movie.

"… then maybe we're here too, right Sakura-chan?"

The kunoichi slipped from her indulging reverie and turned to her loquacious teammate. "Did you say something?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed into slits as he crossed his arms. "You okay, Sakura-chan?"

Once she knew everyone was staring at her. Sakura forcefully dragged her thoughts to the back of her mind and looked alert.

She gulped nervously, blushing brightly when even the masked ANBU turned his head slightly to stare at the cause of their sudden stop.

_Shannaro! Do something! You'll look like an idiot in front of everyone…_

"I'm okay!" she said, a little too loudly. She clamped her mouth shut at the attention they got because of her. She blushed and giggled nervously.

_So much for not looking at an idiot. _She sighed.

While walking, the older Uchiha couldn't help but scowl and groan inwardly. Great, now he had a preteen crushing after him.

---

Sasuke couldn't remember the time he felt so relieved to see the Hokage Tower before. His only memories of this tower reminded him of the idiotic missions the Third Hokage put them through, the stupid missions that Tsunade purposely chose for them, and the occasional C-rank missions that they were lucky enough to receive.

But there were other things to wonder about now.

The younger Sasuke contemplated the idea of a new Hokage. Since the mountain with the faces of the village's leaders had an extra person, unrecognizable yet familiar at the same time, it was obvious the Rokudaime has already been elected. At this, his dark eyes moved to where Naruto was walking, his arms lazily on the back of his head. The idiot didn't even seem upset about the idea of a newly-elected Hokage.

_He's either hiding his disappointment well or he's positive he achieved his goal. _

As the tower, which looked about the same as they remembered, came nearer and nearer, anxiousness to find out more about this bizarre place filled Team Seven.

"So, uh, we saw a new face being worked on the mountain."

Sasuke nearly made a show of rolling his eyes. So _that_ was Naruto's smooth way of getting his answer?

The older Shinobi scoffed. "The elders had no saying in the elections of the new Hokage. The Godaime was the one who chose him."

Naruto and Sakura stared, dumbfounded, while Sasuke calmly closed his eyes. They didn't know whether he was truthful or sarcastic. An uncomfortable silence moved in after that.

It was a few seconds later that Naruto furiously noted that the man never answered his question. He's mouth turned into a half-pout half-frown as he shot glares at the man's back.

_A bastard is always a bastard, I guess._ Never mind what happened in the alley.

They reached the entrance of the Hokage Tower quickly, ignoring the stares from people crowded there, but feeling self conscious at the same time. Among the crowd of people, was a young teen was pacing outside the gate hurriedly, glaring at the ground below him and muttering senseless words of anger. As soon they came into view, the teen stopped his pacing and rushed irritably over to the ANBU.

"Where have you been? Do you have any idea what could've happened if this got out to the elders? You're supposed to be working, dammit!"

"Konohamaru." Uchiha motioned with his head behind him. "I was busy with a tiny problem. And frankly, I really don't care what those living corpses think or say."

"Yes, but your escort-"

The Third's grandson looked aghast at the icy glare the older Sharingan-possessor managed to throw at him even behind the mask, and quickly swallowed his words.

Naruto, who at the time was scowling, brightened at the sight of his small friend and student. "Konohamaru, you twerp, is that you?" The once little midget that used to do nothing but brag that he would someday beat him, developed into a young adult with his signature blue scarf still around his shoulders. Naruto proudly stared at the forest green vest his apprentice of the Sexy no Jutsu wore.

The brown-haired teen looked past the burning expression of the taller man he had been scolding just a few seconds ago to see a quite familiar face. "Huh? Naruto-nii? What­- How did- err… wow, this is a new jutsu?" said Konohamaru, scratching his messy hair tied in a high ponytail.

"I can't believe you're taller than me!" Naruto complained. His eyes widened though when he thought of something. "Heh, but I bet I'm still better!"

_Oh, I get it! This must be the works of Naruto-nii! _

Cautiously looking around him for any flying objects/hyperactive blonds coming directly at him, the teen went with the flow. "Yeah right! You know I practiced hard to defeat you. I even invented my own version of the Sexy Jutsu, Naruto-nii." He began bouncing on his feet. "Yosh, I'll show you right now."

The ANBU knew what was coming, he was unfortunate enough to see this version of the perverted jutsu and he was still recovering from the trauma. "Not now. You morons can catch up after you three explain yourselves, and we figure out what happened," the Uchiha said, his voice muffled by the mask, though it was still sharp while addressing the genin.

Not bothering to wait for a response, he went inside the building, but not before whispering something to a now somber Konohamaru. The teen looked taken back before nodding, disappearing with a cloud of smoke.

Naruto, however, could have sworn that his now-grown friend gave him a look of saddened pity before vanishing.

"What was with that look, Sasuke-teme?" he asked, though silence answered instead, and with one look he saw he was alone outside the entrance.

"Argh, it's like they do this on purpose! And with two Sasukes that means double the insanity!" He brought his hands up to his head in shock. "Shit, I left Sakura-chan alone with them! Nooo!"

Yelling out a battle cry which sounded more a like a beast's mating call, Naruto sprinted inside the building almost knocking out a secretary and making her lose her balance.

"Hey, watch it!" she shouted at him, though Naruto couldn't see her face since the poor woman was carrying a pile of papers high enough to almost touch the ceiling.

"Sorry miss, but I got to save Sakura-chan from been vandalized by couple of stuck-up assholes with-" The rest of his apology was caught off as he turned sharply at a corner. However, loud foot steps could still be heard in the distance.

"Ah?" the secretary mused out loud. She cursed, her hands were getting tired. It would be best if she kept going. "Wait… did he say Sakura-chan?"

* * *

The first thing Sasuke noticed was that the Hokage's office was quite bare with only a few pieces of furniture decorating the room. Despite that though, the office was gloriously illuminated not by lights, but by scattering streaks of sunshine that trespassed the place through the windows. Glittering sunbeams bounced throughout the room, giving an illusion that the concrete walls and wooden floors were made out of pure gold.

The second thing that Sasuke noticed was that Sakura, usually composed as any other kunoichi, was gaping openly. Her form was tense and her mouth was open in shock, sea-foam eyes staring off in space. Unknown to him, her hands were clenched in tight fists, pressed tightly to her sides.

"Sakura?" he asked. Most times the use of her name would have shaken the girl from whatever stupor she was on, though now, she looked he never even said it.

Finding her reaction quite odd, and secretly worrying, Sasuke moved his gaze to the farthest wall where he could make out the Hokage's desk. He immediately froze in surprise.

"_The tears I've cried will surely become shining crystals."_

Sasuke shifted, that voice sounded familiar.

"_With a trembling heart, you're by my side."_

It sort of reminded him of the baritone voice he was well used to hearing, except it was deeper, with hints of boldness and mischief mixed together.

"_Even if my voice won't reach you and I feel like giving up."  
_

Where did he hear that voice before? The young Uchiha tilted his head to look past a quiet Sakura to look at the source of the voice, which was singing some unfamiliar song.

"_I'll never let go of your hand as I move forward!"_

"Singing in the middle of a task, dobe?"

--

Naruto nearly ran into the puzzled dark-haired, who was –along with Sakura- covering the entrance of the office.

"Sakura-chan! Are you okay!" the whiskered boy shouted, but received no answer from the girl.

All thoughts of saving Sakura from either Sasuke disappeared once he saw she was okay, a little stunned, but away from harm's way.

_Wait… what?_

"Hey," Naruto growled. "Why you stop for?" He tapped the other boy's shoulder with a closed fist. When there was no reaction from the other, the orange-clad boy poked at the uchiwa fan on the back of the blue shirt.

"Sasuke?" There was no reaction to that either. Galled, Naruto stood on his tiptoes to look past the boy's shoulder, cursing milk for not making him taller. He drank it everyday, and still Sakura-chan was a tad bit taller than him!

Frowning and eyes squinting, he couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.

The Sasuke look-alike was leaning on the front side of the desk, covering Naruto's view. It looked like the office he was used to seeing, with large windows surrounding the room. So why were his teammates looking like they just saw a corpse coming back from the dead?

"Finally you're back! What the hell took you so long?! You were only supposed to get ramen, not to take a break!" There was a pause then, "And I can sing if I freaking want to."

In spite of the angry words, the voice was coated with relief and poorly hidden joy.

"Right, as if I take breaks constantly." Naruto heard older Sasuke's low voice say sarcastically. "And if your going to sing on the job at least put some effort into it."

"You asshole, I'll have you know my voice is known to charm people. They can't take their eyes off of me after meeting me."

"Probably, but not for the reasons you think. You didn't just butcher the song, you manhandled it."

"Argh! I can't believe you! Even after offering to do your job so you can take a small break and relax your stupid ass a little, because you look like a frozen iceberg while glaring at everyon-"

"Babbling," Uchiha warned.

"Anyways," the familiar voice said again. "I'm glad you're here. Just after you left, I got the strangest feeling."

Casually, the ANBU shook off his cloak on his shoulders, letting it fall before catching it at the last minute. He folded it neatly and placed it softly on the desk. With the cloak now off, Naruto could see the back of his head as it shook in disbelief.

"What kind of feeling, Zenko," he said seriously, though still with a curious hint in his voice.

"Sasukee!" the man said again. "I told you stop calling me that! I'm not sure though. It was sort of like déjà vu, but it sort of wasn't. It felt like I was having a long nostalgic flashback, does that make sense? Do you think I'm getting sick? No, that's not possible, is it?"

Right then, Naruto heard Sakura in front of him let out a frail gasp, which immediately called for his attention. Much to his chagrin, blue eyes couldn't exactly see well with both Sakura and Sasuke blocking the entrance door. "What the hell, Sasuke? Move!" he hissed, though he was either ignored or the bastard didn't hear him at all.

There was a small pause before Naruto heard the elder Uchiha say quietly, "No, you idiot. It's not possible, but as for the nostalgic feeling, why in the world do you think I had to get out a minute?"

"To get ramen, duh." Was the reply.

"I felt something was wrong too. I've been feeling strange vibes since this morning, and a bit of scurrying around the village, I have found the source of the problem."

With that said and ignoring the 'cocky bastard' comment that came from his anonymous partner, the so-called ANBU moved to the left side of the desk finally allowing Naruto to see what had made his teammates stop in shock.

Perfect blue stared silently at him. The Kyuubi-container had to blink quickly at the sight. Then he noticed, there was so much gold. Spiky, bright blond hair was tussled everywhere, some of it covering the Konoha headband. The once boyish round face matured deeply. Unlike the older Sasuke, who had more of a sharp, handsome face, this man developed a rounder, bold look and large eyes.

How odd. Was this how Sasuke felt just a few moments ago back in the darkened alley?

_Wait… Time out!_

Naruto gaped at the equally baffled doppelganger in front of him, sitting behind the Hokage's desk, evidently arranging and re-arranging a few papers, judging by the mess. The usual blue and orange attire were gone in exchange for black with a few traces of the bright, annoying orange color.

Heart begun to race as if running a marathon, and with his blood rushing quickly through his veins, Naruto realized that he needed to know. No. He _desired _toknow if this wasn't some sort of cruel joke or one of the many dreams he had during a particularly good night sleep.

Slowly, Naruto brought up hand and pointed at the gawking imitation of himself.

"Are you Uzumaki Naruto?" he asked, nearly shouting. Well, at least that seemed to have snapped both Sasuke and Sakura from whatever spell they were in. No, actually, Sasuke was ignoring the entire situation from the beginning, it just so happened that he really _was_ ignoring him. Instead the dark-haired genin was inspecting the room with his bloodline, looking particularly confused by what he saw.

The reflection jerked as if Naruto was an illusion, no words came out of his lips. That was before a large grin split over his face. "Yes I am! Who wants to know?" he questioned cheerfully, playing along with the supposed game that the older Uchiha most likely put up together.

Not bothering to answer, Naruto's boyish expression became overjoyed. Letting out a loud whoop with a high jump, the boy broke out into an uncoordinated dance, almost knocking against an annoyed Sasuke and creep-out Sakura.

Naruto though, could have cared less right now. "HELL YEAH! I can't believe this! How cool am I?!" Naruto said still dancing to an inaudible song only he could hear. "Just wait till I tell Tsunade-baachan about this! The old hag is going to have a heart attack."

Sakura, who was unfortunate enough to be on the boy's path, moved out of the way hurriedly, displeasure written all over her pale face. "Naruto! Calm down, you idiot, before you hurt someone!" despite the violent way she said that, everybody could see glee in her body language. If it weren't for the fact that she had something called _decency_, she would have jumped in and joined the overjoyed boy.

Naruto's duplicate, who was watching excitedly from his seat, stood up quickly, all but running to join the strange victory dance his younger counterpart was doing. His 'what the hell?' expression was gone and pushed so far away, it didn't seem like it was there in the first place.

"No, no! This is how you do it!" the older blond instructed, while flinging his arms up and down with his hands closed in fists.

The two blondes, far too gone into their excitement, went around in circles inside the office, each caught up in their own dancing versions.

Feeling a huge headache coming up at the sight of so much yellow and gold twirling around like drunken bees, Sasuke gritted his teeth and closed his eyes in order to stop the nausea from rising.

Next to him, Sakura giggled. "They're kind of acting like Gai and Lee, aren't they? Except they look like they have most of their sanity left." There was a big emphasis on the word 'most'.

"What?!" Both Narutos halted their poor attempts of dancing to stare incredulously at the kunoichi.

That definitely snapped the mood, not in half, but in tiny cinders.

"Dobe, did you arrange the pile that needed signatures?"

Despite been as social as a hibernating grizzly, Sasuke was definitely a good ice breaker.

"Yeah. I put them on top of the ones that are not due till next month and behind the ones that need to be shown to the elders," the blond nin retorted. "And stop worrying about them; the geezers are still recuperating from the trauma from last time. I swear, they haven't recovered their natural skin tones." With that said, he turned to smile at his smaller version.

The older blonde's eyes widened comically, once the realization fell on him like a ton of bricks. "Wait a minute! What the hell? You're me, aren't you? How-?"

He stopped his questioning once he noticed Sakura and Sasuke.

"What-? S-Sasuke! There's an undersized version of you! And a tiny, mini-Sakura!"

Before he could start to hyperventilate, Uchiha activated his Sharingan, making the so-called undersize Sasuke growl softly at the sight of it. "They're real, dobe. They're as real you and I. The Sharingan shows that both the Naruto and Sasuke have completely the same identical chakra that we do."

Naruto frowned. "How did this happen?" It sounded as if the question was neither directed to the genin nor at Sasuke, who was now smirking coldly at his younger self.

_The hell? Shouldn't two bastards attract? _The younger Naruto wondered. _Nope, that's against the laws of physics. Not to mention if bastards attracted each other, Sasuke-teme would get along with Neji, and they hardly talk. Okay so that's it. Sasuke-teme doesn't get along with other ice-pricks, must write that down._

Though the question was rhetorical, the older Sasuke looked away from the glaring contest and nodded. "That's what I would like to know too."

Sakura swallowed, the new tense atmosphere was far from being playful, and it was starting to suffocation her. She knew this was their cue to start explaining.

"It all started with Kakashi-sensei. You see, yesterday he arrived early for training…"

---

Both older copies stayed completely silent as she told a less complicated version of what happened. Starting with Kakashi's early arrival and sudden attempt to teach them a new jutsu and ending with an unexpected ambush from the Sound shinobi.

Though well hidden by everyone else, Sasuke saw the Uchiha's jaw tightening slightly at the mention of the Sound Shinobi.

_He knows something about them, but doesn't want to let us know,_ Sasuke thought suspiciously. Sasuke, after all, knew himself better than anyone else, no matter how old or different he was. If Sasuke was right about his suspicions, this man knew exactly what was going on. He probably also had information on his brother.

To the avenger's surprise though, the Naruto next to Uchiha, let out a small growl, all traces of cheerfulness gone from his face. Round blue orbs narrowed deeply, while his mouth, which almost seemed to have a mind of its own, turned into a grimace.

But none of that compared to the strange livid red chakra that began to consume the blond.

_What is this? No, that doesn't matter. Where is he getting such power?_ Sasuke could only stare.

Paying closer attention, the older Uchiha's eyes turned red for a brief moment. For the sake of retelling the story, neither of his teammates noticed this. What Sakura did notice however, was the Uchiha shifting, _accidentally_ touching his shoulder to the blond's. This immediately provoked a sudden change in the tense form of older Naruto.

It was as if someone turned on a switch, the older blond stiffened at the sudden contact, before slowly letting out the breath he was holding captive. His shoulders relaxed as his entire upper torso bowed slightly in, was it exhaustion? Sakura guessed so, since he looked particularly defeated, yet his eyes couldn't be anymore relieved.

_Of course! They probably _do_ know what's going on, which means that Sasuke-san was, in his own way, comforting Naruto. _She almost felt like giggling.

Sakura could remember how she always wanted for her teammates to get along. And now, it seems like she got what she wanted. The kunoichi dismissed the troubled suspicions of her teammates from this morning. How could she suspect about them when they were finally getting along like the friends they are.

"The Sound Shinobi were stronger than we expected," she clarified. Mumbling, she said, "Much stronger."

"Is that all?" Surprisingly, it was the older Uzumaki who asked. His partner nodded in agreement, though looking like he wasn't even listening to the conversion or into it.

And his younger self noticed it.

Sasuke bit his tongue to stop himself from snapping at the other. "All of them had a seal, and from what I could tell, they hardly used it to fight us."

Even with the Sharingan, the Uchiha was beaten much faster than his fight with Gaara in the Chuunin Exams. It was like all his training had been nothing but a kid's game. All the time spent with Kakashi and his private lessons proved useless.

His brother's words came back from the locked space in his mind, making his head hurt from the memories. Inside of him, Sasuke's blood began to boil at the thought. He was still too weak. The avenger couldn't stand a chance against _him_.

"Hey! Sasuke-chibi! Snap out of it!"

Sasuke's dark eyes widened, bringing up a hand to rub his head. Did the idiot just hit him? Naruto Uzumaki hit _him_?

_How did he do that without I seen it coming?_ Sasuke contemplated, light-headed by the strong knock.

His thoughts were interrupted by the same idiot who hit him. "You need to stop with the 'I'm too weak' thoughts 'Suke, I can practically see the bad vibes coming from you," the eldest Uzumaki chirped, twitching his fingers in a creep-like way to make his point across.

At that, Sasuke scowled deeply._ 'Suke? Sasuke-chibi?_ Did that dumbass think that just because he was older that he could call him a child? He opened his mouth to retort an insult, though he changed his mind at the last minute. He didn't know whether to call him an idiot, or be curious on how the idiot in question figured out his thoughts.

Naruto, on the other hand, found the new nickname fuel for his amusement, and was quick to let it be known.

"Sasuke-chibi? Little Sasuke. I guess that would make him a small bastard!" He snorted at the glare his rival send his way, but he did stop laughing to appease his teammate.

"Quiet Naruto!" Sakura looked in between angry and amused, though for the sake of her crush she swallowed the giggle that threatened to erupt.

She almost felt guilty in betraying her idol, since she could have sworn the older Uchiha shuddered. "Alright, that's enough." Sasuke-san grabbed a handful of golden hair from the slightly shorter man and pulled lightly. "Where do you dobes came up with these half-witted names? Don't you think that if you were to insult someone, you should at least dig deeply through that mush you call brain to come up with something better?"

Naruto pulled his hair from the other's grip. "Bah," he waved a hand in offense. "You're just mad 'cause I'm giving 'Suke my wanted attention." He sighed in remorse, tilting his head toward the window to stare wistfully at the passing clouds. "I'm just that awesome, and unfortunately, there is not enough of me for everyone."

Uchiha shrugged. "Back to you three, which one of you performed the jutsu?"

"I did." Sakura raised her hand, shaking nervously at the deep sound of the older Uchiha.

There was a nod from the dark-haired. "Oi, dobe. Fetch me the white box under the bookshelf with the leaf on the back. It should be in the storage room in the basement."

"You asshole! I'm not your dog." Nevertheless, the blond moved from his spot and left the room, muttering under his breath.

Naruto scratched a whiskered cheek after the door closed with a soft click. "Hey, Sasuke-teme, why did you do that for?"

"Because I can," was the answer. "I have a slight suspicion that Iruka did not return the scroll he borrowed."

"Iruka-sensei? What does he have to do with this, Sasuke-san?" the only Kunoichi asked, blushing as dark eyes she always searched for turned to look at her.

"Look, I have a strong feeling that Iruka lend the scroll to Kakashi. The technique you performed was a Forbidden Jutsu which takes you and surrounding teammates to another place. However," Sasuke paused momentarily when the door opened softly revealing a peeved Naruto and a small, white box tucked under his arm. "Depending on the danger the caster is put on during the situation, the longer the time alteration. This jutsu is not a transportation jutsu like you thought it was, it's a time trap."

Disregarding the doubt in the children's faces, Sasuke took the white box from Naruto. He whispered 'release' softly, disintegrating the seal on the top of the lid and took a peak inside the small container.

"It's not here."

Naruto chuckled, unfazed. "No wonder it was so light. Who burrowed it?"

Sasuke replaced the broken seal with a new one. "I lend it to Iruka, though I assumed it was for his class. He did say something along the lines of 'It's for the sake of my students' but I was obviously mistaken."

The blond man nodded, his long bangs dancing a bit on each side of his temples. "So then he doesn't have it, Kakashi does."

"It seems so."

By now Team Seven couldn't stay out of the conversation, it was bad enough that they had to stand quiet through the entire accusations that their perverted, but light-hearted teacher did this on purpose.

"What the hell do you mean it was a time trap?!" The loud words from the number one hyperactive ninja left the rest of the people in the room with throbbing eardrums, even his older version winced and massaged his ears with both hands.

"Please tell me I wasn't that annoying all the time."

Uchiha winced. "Fine, I won't." He stayed quiet. "A time trap entails that the user-"

"Wait a minute! How can you accuse me of being annoying if you're me? Wouldn't you be calling yourself the same?"

Sasuke, the younger one, clenched his jaw. He raised a hand to grab the loudmouth's collar harshly. "You dumbass, who the hell cares if you just called yourself an idiot? Stop being so much of a nuisance so we can find what the hell happened and go back home."

The whiskered-boy gripped at the burning hands on his collar, digging his nails on the soft pale skin. "You jerk! You're worse than a moody girl! One minute you're a good guy and offers to buy me ramen and the next you get all crazed and act like something was shoved up your ass!"

The cold glare on Sasuke's expression was enough to make Sakura, who was watching nervously, shiver but it wasn't enough to make Naruto falter. "I had it with your whining."

"Well, I, uh… had it with your mood swings!"

Sasuke growled. "Why can't you be quiet for a minute? Can't you see this is a difficult position to be in right now? Especially with the Sound Ninja after us?"

"What's your problem, dammit! I know that!"

Sakura went in to intervene. _This is getting out of hand._ "Sasuke-kun, you need to stop this, Naruto is just being his idiot self and doesn't mean it, right Naruto?"

"Hell no, I mean every word I say!"

Meanwhile, the older Uchiha turned to the blond, raising a questioning eyebrow as if to say. _Did we really behave like that?_

Naruto understood the look and snickered loudly. "I'm afraid so, Sasuke-teme."

Surpassing a sigh, older Sasuke manually separated the two genin, throwing the younger Sasuke to Naruto, who caught him lightly. He himself kept the young Naruto in his arms to stop him from launching himself at his smaller copy.

Unable to stop himself, the ANBU lowered his head down to meet the child's blond hair and inhale the orange blossom scent.

The blonde's rage faded when he felt the man release a sigh, making his own hair tickle. His back was now against the other's chest while his arms were wrapped warmly around his waist rather firmly.

Just like last time, he stood uncomfortably still, waiting for the raven-haired to let go.

"Why so tense, dobe," the older man whispered huskily, his lips nearly touching the lobe of his ear.

Resisting the urge to shiver at the sudden contact, Naruto made no comment. He simply stared right ahead, ignoring the warmth of his breath in his neck, gulping noisily.

"Can you-" _what? Let go? Stay away from me? Jump from a cliff? _Naruto, for the first time since becoming a genin, was totally speechless.

Nobody seemed to care for those two. Sasuke was still struggling against the other Naruto while Sakura was talking softly to the dark-haired, hoping he would calm down. Taking the opportunity, the older Sasuke allowed his right arm to travel down to the younger blonde's thigh.

However, the black-clad Naruto did notice the one-sided exchange of caresses. _I'm gonna kill ya later when we get home, bastard!_ He glared silently, still trying to stop the shorter Sasuke from reaching for a kunai all the while glaring with his Sharingan.

"First of all, 'Suke," Sasuke craned his head to glare at the smiling Naruto behind him, holding him tightly. "Technically, you are home. Second of all, the jutsu is sort of a time traveling jutsu. It traps not only you, but your enemies in a different time, and then the user reverses the jutsu to return to his time, leaving his enemies in the middle of nowhere." He wanted to add, 'like Kakashi's Mangekyou', but that has yet to occur in their time.

Sakura immediately thought about this. _So where are we? How many years have passed?_

"Only six years."

The girl blushed brightly; she had said those thoughts out loud.

"Six years," Sasuke repeated softly, glowering at the floor. In exactly six years, he would be strong, possibly strong enough to defeat his brother.

He clenched his fists tightly, he couldn't wait that long. His _family_ didn't deserve to wait that long. It was bad enough he already wasted four years of his life with childish training.

Before Sasuke could come up with a solution, he felt the strong grip around his shoulders tighten and shake him gently. "Oi, 'Suke? What I tell you about those emo thoughts? You're ruining the happy mood! Think of this as an early vacation until we send you back."

Inwardly groaning, Sasuke resisted the urge to step on the taller boy's foot. He was what, eighteen years old going on five? Such a dobe, he scoffed.

Uchiha let the confused Naruto in his arms go, slowly. "This place doesn't have enough room for two Usuratonkachis, both Iruka and Kakashi are going to pay."

"I second that, Ichiraku's doesn't have enough ramen for you and me, kid," the older Uzumaki added unhelpfully to his frowning self. "I say Iruka stays here and Kakashi gets a long-term mission for dooming my favorite restaurant."

"I'll see what I can do."

Suddenly, a light bulb turned on over the pink-haired kunoichi. "Oh, that's right! ANBU captains have the authority to give orders to jounin and other ANBU, right?"

Uchiha calmly looked at the other Naruto, who looked back with a troubled expression. Shit, they both knew where this was going.

_Please don't bring it up, please don't bring it up. _The eighteen-year-old blond prayed. Neither he nor Sasuke were prepared for the future drama that was sure to come.

It didn't matter; fate seemed to hate them both.

"You know, at first I hated the idea of Sasuke beating me. But ha! Take that Sasuke-teme! You're just an ANBU, while I-" Naruto didn't get to finish, since the Uchiha placed a hand on the excited boy's mouth. He didn't stop there either, Sasuke slowly moved from behind the smaller nin to kneel in front of him, his hand still covering Naruto's mouth.

"I'm not," he said before pausing, glaring at the orange-clad boy to stop fidgeting. "I'm not really an ANBU."

"Fhat?" exclaimed Naruto; he slapped away the hand on his mouth. "What do you mean? You're wearing the ANBU uni-"

"I'm not an ANBU, Naruto," Sasuke said again, this time more forcefully.

Naruto began to get pissed. "You already said that! What do you mean?"

Clear blue orbs questionably searched around the room. His teammates, Sakura and Sasuke were just as confused as he was, both staring quietly at the kneeling man in front of him. Naruto's eyes narrowed. What did he mean he wasn't an ANBU? His expression seemed to practically scream the question.

It was then; Naruto met his reflection, standing quietly behind his teammates. The older clone was calmly trying not to meet his eyes, his dejected form apart from the others.

Last but not least, the Kyuubi-container hesitantly made eye contact with Sasuke in front of him. He too, looked awkward and uncomfortable.

"I'm-" the words were unfinished.

Despite how everyone believed that Uzumaki Naruto was not the sharpest tool or the brightest ninja in Konoha, in reality he was good at accepting whatever harsh obstacle stood in his way and keep going forward stubbornly. He might be reckless in fights, but he constantly proved everyone wrong by being devoted to his goal.

But as Naruto studied the genuine guilt in his rival and best friend's dark stare- because Sasuke is and will be his everything, no matter the time period- Naruto couldn't help but think it all made sense.

The new face carved in the Hokage Mountain, the amusing but gentle way of changing the subject about the new Hokage, the teasing orders for his older version, the 'I'll see what I can do' comment, the look Konohamaru showed before he left, and the deep remorse that the Uchiha dared to display, despite his cold up-bringing.

It all made sense now.

His hurt-filled eyes dropped to the floor, looking completely stunned.

And as Naruto's eyes began to get blurry for some reason, the ebon orbs belonging to the Hokage filled with self-hate for a split second before returning to their usual apathetic form.

_I'm sorry, Naruto._

This was the second time he thought that as he watched his friend shatter in front of him.

* * *

Longest chapter ever written, a boring one at that.

Zenko literally means good fox.

Before y'all flame at us for messing with canon, let me tell you a few things first.

One: **There's a good reason for the change in events**, part of it will be explained later.

Two: **Here are some names that might clear a few things.  
**Sasuke will refer to his older self as Uchiha.  
Sakura will refer the older Sasuke as Sasuke-san or Sasuke-sempai.  
Naruto will refer the older Sasuke the same as always.

Three: **I apologized in advance** for messing with everyone's character and for writing such a confusing chapter.

Four: **If someone like Gaara can be a good Kazekage**… well, you finish the rest. *Dodges tomatoes*

And Five: **I would also like to beg forgiveness for ruining Naruto's life. **But as you could see, the older Naruto seemed okay…

**If you have any questions please ask. **Let us know what you think (flames will be laughed at vigorously). We love you! Happy late Valentine's Day!


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